New Balance MT100-WT100 Review

Over the past year, New Balance’s MT100 (men’s) and WT100 (women’s) have gathered quite a following among fans of minimalist trail shoes. Designed with the help of Anton Krupicka and the Skaggs brothers, there aren’t a lot of extras on these shoes. Watch the following video for a closer look at this lightweight, trail-worthy shoe. As with future video reviews on iRunFar, you can also skip ahead to written summary of the video review.

[Editor’s Note: We’re afraid this video has been lost to the ether.]

[This is the first of what we hope will be many Trail Trials with Travis Liles video reviews here on iRunFar. He’s previously produced great video reviews on FlatlandUltra.com and, more recently, at his website, RunTheUltras.com. We’re excited that he’s joined the iRunFar family.

New Balance MT100/WT100 Review The New Balance MT100/WT100 (hereinafter MT100 for simplicity’s sake) is an evolution of the New Balance 790. It’s a marquee shoe in the current set of low profile trail shoes. A men’s size 9 tips the scale at a mere 7 ounces and change. Be aware that you’re wallet will weigh more than after buying most other trail shoes as the MSRP is a mere $75. For the over eager, iRunFar has previously shared a sneak peak at the MT101/WT101 due out late in 2010. Below, we’ll look at the shoe’s outsole, midsole, and upper.

Outsole The MT100’s outsole is trail specific, but is suitable for some road running. The shoe is particular adept on packed dirt. It is not the shoe of choice for sloppy mud.

The New Balance MT100's lightweight, trail-worthy outsole.

The foremost half of the outsole features lugs a few millimeters thick. Minimally textured rubber stretches from the arch back to the heel, which is home to the shoe’s most significant lugs for braking. The outsole features circular cutouts that reduce weight.

Midsole The MT100 has a single density midsole, meaning that the shoe does not have a post for pronation control. On the other hand, the midsole is raised on both the inside and outside of the midfoot. This results in a fair amount of support for the shoe’s weight.

The New Balance MT100's surprisingly supportive midsole.

The Rock Stop rockplate sandwiched between the outsole and midsole offers decent push-through protection in the forefoot and midfoot. The TPU plate does, however, mean that the shoe is a bit stiffer in the forefoot than some comparable models and creates a pivot point at the rear of the rockplate.

Upper The upper is primarily mesh backed by lightweight fabric and has minimal overlays. These combine to provide a sock like feel that gives the foot room to wiggle around. However, the upper also does not offer much lateral support, which can be problematic on technical or switchbacking trail. The highly breathable fabric allows water to quickly drain from the shoe.

The New Balance MT100's highly flexible upper.

The ankle collar and heel counter are made of a material akin to nerf foam. Unlike conventional shoes, there is no fabric covering the foam on the shoe’s exterior. Some users, including iRunFar’s Bryon Powell, have had the hard foam at the top of the Achilles notch slice into the skin covering the Achilles while running sockless. Other runners have experienced similar discomfort while wearing socks. If needed, the upper portion of the Achilles notch can be cut away. New Balance is aware of the problem and is addressing it in the MT101.

The MT100 also has a minimal tongue consisting of a single layer of the lightweight mesh/fabric combination that makes up much of the shoe. The “sausage like” Sure Laces keep the shoe secure and laces locked tight.

New Balance MT100/WT100 Giveaway

Well, we’ve given away the five pairs of New Balance’s MT100 or WT100. The winners are Jeremy Slatton of Barnhart, MO; Glen D of Shrub Oak, NY; David; Randy Snyder of Bismarck, ND; and Derek of Weybridge, VT.

Call for Comments/Questions While the contest is as simple as noted above, we’d love some more info from our readers. If you’ve previously worn the MT100 or WT100, please let us know what you like about them? If you’ve worn other minimalist shoes, what do you like such shoes, in general, and what has you the most excited about the New Balance shoes?

As always, please ask any questions you might have about the shoes.

[Note regarding comments: We might delete all non-substantive, contest-entry comments after the contest concludes so as to make the remaining substantive comments more useful to future readers.]

[Disclosure: The Amazon link in this article is part of an affiliate program that helps support iRunFar. If you haven’t guessed, New Balance is providing the five pairs of MT100/WT100s.]

Travis Liles resides in Portland, Oregon where he is a husband, father, and a technical specialist for a software company. In his spare time, he is exploring his new home in the Pacific Northwest, getting more vertical but still not living in the thin air, while producing "Trail Trials with Travis Liles" video gear reviews for iRunFar.

I am considering a pair of the mt100 shoes and just can't pull the trigger on them… I am afraid that at 200 lbs I am too big to wear such a minimalist shoe, what do you guys think. Reading Born to Run really made me rethink my whole approach to running and equipment for running and these shoes seem like the perfect platform for that new approach. Currently I have Montrail Mountain Masochist and just picked up a pair of Cascadia 5's based largely on the reviews on this very site… thanks and keep it up!

Thanks for reviewing the shoes. I am looking forward to trying these out as I like prefer pseudo-minimalistic shoes and I'm curious if these shoes could handle the 70-90 mpw I put in on rocky trails. Plus, I'm very poor and I need new shoes! Size 10 por favor?

Great review. I appreciate the thoroughness and relevance of the content. I run in NB 875s and have been interested in trying the MT's. I understand that they revamped it slightly over the winter to make some minor improvements. Happy to see a first hand perspective on the features and lack thereof. Looking for size 11.5!

I bought a pair of New Balance 840's this spring and am training for my first Ultra, a 50 miler! Huge fan of this site, Ive told my friends about it as well! This shoe may be the Perfect Shoe……see you on the trails!

I have trouble with a lot of trail shoes being too structured, stiff and heavy. I have trail races in the NB790's and I love them, so light, flexible and good for the toes to get a grip on smooth trails. These new MT 100s would be super fun to try at Kettle Moraine in WI, or Tecumseh trail marathon, IN, or Big Bend 50K.

Bob Holzhauer, Fairfax, VA – Size 12. I really need something thats tough enough to replace the 07 Blurs. For the guy that asked if they'd be okay for a 200 pounder, wait'll he sees a "superclyde" coming down the trail. I'm hovering around 230… BTW, The Vasque Mindbender's soles got "soft" and the whole upper seemed loose by the end of the 24 hour race (100km) on May 1st. I admittedly wore the same pair for the entire time to see how they'd hold up. One of the reasons I liked the Blurs was a light shoe with a stiff sole that protected my feet from broken shale.